There was a time when ₹5 was enough to make a child ridiculously happy. And if you grew up in India in the 90s or early 2000s, you probably remember the very keen excitement of finding a Phantom Sweet Cigarette in your pocket, fighting with your sibling over the last Poppins or slowly dissolving a Rol-a-Cola because finishing it too quickly felt like a waste. This Children’s Day, we are revisiting eight Indian candies that deserve another moment in the spotlight. Parents, consider this your chance to introduce your children to the snacks that occupied your pocket money, school breaks and birthday-party return gifts.
8 Nostalgic Indian Candies From The 90s That Take Us Back To Childhood
1. Phantom Sweet Cigarettes
There was something hilariously dramatic about being a child with a Phantom Sweet Cigarette. Sold in little packs containing white, cigarette-shaped peppermint sweets with red tips, these candies allowed children to imitate the grown-ups they saw around them.
Manufactured by Harnik General Foods, Phantom became a recognisable confectionery brand in India, particularly among children growing up in the 1980s and 1990s. The candy itself had a mild peppermint flavour, but let’s be honest, the packaging was doing most of the work.
Also Read: Children’s Day: 15 Iconic Foods & Drinks That Takes Us Back To Our Childhood
2. Rol-a-Cola
Remember when opening a soft drink bottle was an entire event? Well, Rol-a-Cola gave us the cola experience without the glass bottle, the fizz or the elaborate pouring ritual. Parle’s little cola-flavoured hard candies were a staple for children who wanted something sweet to suck on during a school break.
The candy was discontinued in 2006, reportedly because of declining sales. But what happened next deserves its own little corner in India’s confectionery history. In 2019, a social media campaign asking Parle to bring back Rol-a-Cola gathered momentum. The company responded with a promise to relaunch it if the campaign reached 10,000 retweets. It did, and the beloved candy returned.
3. Pan Pasand
Most candies were busy competing over mango, orange and strawberry flavours. Ravalgaon’s Pan Pasand had other plans. It brought the familiar flavour of paan into a little sweet that children could carry around in their pockets.
The combination of sweetness and paan-inspired flavours made it quite different from the usual fruit candies. It was also one of those treats that adults enjoyed just as much as children. You could find someone reaching for it after a meal, offering it to a guest or simply keeping a few pieces handy.
4. Poppins
Ask anyone who grew up in the 90s about Poppins, and there is a good chance they will remember the colourful candy roll before they remember anything else. Introduced by Parle in 1966, Poppins became one of the most recognisable fruit candies in the country.
The best part wasn’t even eating them. It was opening the roll, pouring the little coloured sweets into your palm and deciding which one deserved to be eaten first.
Poppins also had a memorable association with the mischievous twins Ram and Shyam from the Tinkle comics universe, who appeared in its advertising.
5. Kismi Bar
Before every second candy started tasting like chocolate, there was Kismi. Parle’s much-loved confectionery brought together caramel-like sweetness and the unmistakable warmth of elaichi. It was chewy, fragrant and very Indian.
Kismi emerged in the 1960s and carved out a space for itself in a market increasingly filled with conventional fruit-flavoured sweets. Its red-and-white packaging became familiar in neighbourhood shops, and its cardamom-led flavour gave it an identity that was difficult to confuse with anything else.
6. Swad
Not every child wanted something sweet. Some of us wanted a little salt, a little sourness and full masala to make our taste buds sit up. Enter Swad, the digestive candy associated with Panjon.
Unlike the usual fruity sweets, Swad leaned into the flavours of Indian churan. Its tangy, savoury character made it a rather interesting addition to the candy collection.
7. Fatafat
If you were the child who always picked the tangiest thing on the shop counter, Fatafat probably deserves a place in your childhood memories. Its little packets contained distinctive, dark-coloured digestive candy pieces that offered a combination of sweet, sour, salty and spicy flavours. The orange-and-black polka-dot packaging was difficult to miss. But it was the taste that made Fatafat memorable.
8. Coffy Bite
Long before coffee-flavoured desserts became a regular feature on café menus, there was Coffy Bite. This little confectionery treat brought the flavour of coffee into a chewy and sweet toffee.
It was a welcome change from the usual mango, orange and strawberry options. The coffee flavour gave it a slightly different personality, and the individually wrapped sweets made them easy to carry around or share with friends.
Also Read: 5 Kids-Special Recipes To Make At Home This Childrens Day
This Children’s Day, we wouldn’t mind seeing a few of these old favourites back on the shelves. Not everything from childhood needs to stay in the past. Some things deserve another bite.
Cover Image Courtesy: littlemagic/Reddit
